Kim Newman – Who Dares Wins: Anno Dracula 1980 Neil Gaiman – Click-Clack The Rattlebag Nicholas Royle – Dead End Daniel Mills – Isaac’s Room Angela Slatter – The Burning Circus Ramsey Campbell – Holes For Faces Joel Lane – By Night He Could Not See Reggie Oliver – Come Into My Parlour Michael Chislett – The Middle Park Simon Kurt Unsworth – Into The Water Lynda E. Rucker – The Burned House Lavie Tidhar – What do we Talk About When We Talk About Z— Halli Villegas – Fishfly Season Tanith Lee – Doll Re Mi Clive Barker – A Night’s Work Robert Shearman – The Sixteenth Step Simon Strantzas – Stemming The Tide Michael Marshall Smith – The GistThana Niveau – Guinea Pig Girl Kim Newman – Miss Baltimore Crabs: Anno Dracula 1990 Stephen Volk – Whitstable
Blurb:The World’s Leading Annual Showcase of Horror and Dark Suspense Celebrates 25 Years. For a quarter of a century, this multiple award-winning annual selection has showcased some of the very best, and most disturbing, short stories and novellas of horror and the supernatural. As always, this landmark volume features superior fiction from such masters of the genre and newcomers in contemporary horror. With an in-depth Introduction covering the year in horror, a fascinating Necrology and a unique contact directory, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror remains the world’s leading anthology dedicated solely to presenting the very best in modern horror.

Joel Lane – EcholandMichael Cisco – The PenuryRichard Gavin – Tinder RowDaniel Mills – The Falling DarkGary McMahon – The Old ChurchD. P. Watt – … he was water before he was fire… Ian Rogers – False North Lisa L. Hannett – Morning PassagesR. B. Russell – At the End of the WorldW. H. Pugmire – Within One Ruined RealmLivia Llewellyn – StabilimentumMichael Kelly – Some Other YouSteve Rasnic Tem – Lost in the Garden of Earthly DelightsPeter Bell – The True Edge of the World John Langan – Bor Urus
Blurb:Thin placesWhere worlds crash against each other, rippling soft spots through reality. Ancient portals through which the darkest nightmares seep, spreading uncertainty and doubt. These places haunt us, and from them shadows edge

A figure from the past, lying in a fieldThe unlikely three, bound by their questA high-rise apartment, where creatures crawlThe drive in the storm, through blurring edgesThe brother, hiding from his sins

15 tales of numinous horror from some of the genre’s most exciting voices

Blurb:Science FictionTHERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF …. AND ZOMBIES!Following the outbreak of Human Reanimation Virus — more commonly known as “The Death”— from a hidden crypt beneath a south London church, the centuries-old plague quickly spreads throughout the world, turning its victims into flesh-eating zombies.

As we learn more about the mysterious Thomas Moreby — “Patient Zero”— the surviving members of the human race begin their fightback against the legions of the walking dead, and the Infected themselves begin mutating into something … different.

Told through interconnected eyewitness accounts — emails, text messages, reports, diaries, found video footage, and graphic adaptations — the remnants of humanity battle to survive in a world gone mad.

As mentioned elsewhere, you get this as a free pdf whenever you order a title direct from Gray Friars Press and it’s well worth having, i can tell you. Mine came lacking a cover (grumble, moan, complain, etc), so (pilfer, steal, snatch, etc) i’ve swiped this from Simon Strantzas‘s blog.

Here, as far as i can make out, is the Gray Friars catalogue to date. I could be wrong but most (if not all?) are short story collections: as you can see, a respectable smattering of names familiar from Black Book Of Horror. Another plus, Gray Friars pride themselves on being “the true home of British horror” and they’re certainly having a good stab at living up to it.

Too often contemporary horror fiction denies, forgets or is even unaware of its roots in classic dark literature. The man legitimately called the father of the genre, Edgar Allan Poe, thrust terror into the soul of humanity, while his illegitimate descendants located it in the cosmos, across nations, in science, through history, in nature, in the city — in short, wherever people come together and invariably attempt to dull their imaginations. But experience is always too cruel.

These themes are of course relevant today.

This book aims to show how the ideas and techniques of the greats might be utilised to explore the modern world. Here you’ll find neither pastiche nor period prose, rather thoroughly contemporary visions whose aging, tell-tale heart still beats with dismaying memory of the past and irrepressible fear for the future…

30 original stories from some of the finest practitioners in the field, including a brand new tale from modern master Ramsey Campbell.

Edgar Allan Poe suggested that the short story was the ideal vehicle for the dark tale, yet some of the finest ever written — to take just two examples, Algernon Blackwood’s ‘The Willows’ and H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Colour Out Of Space’ — are far longer. The novella, or novelette, is an enduringly popular form in the field of imaginative literature, yet few books celebrate it exclusively.

This collection seeks to show how the longer short story, or the very short novel, is ideally suited to the demands of creating an atmosphere, telling an involving tale, and developing compelling characters. The authors here are all masters of their craft: they know how to combine economy with broad visions of fear.

As ever, this acclaimed anthology also offers the most comprehensive annual overview of horror around the world in all -its incarnations, a comprehensive necrology of famous names, and a list of indispensable contact addresses for the dedicated horror fan and writer alike.The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror remains the world’s leading annual anthology dedicated solely to presenting the best in contemporary horror fiction.

`The Best New Horror series continues to break from the herd, consistently raising the bar of quality and ingenuity.’ Rue Morgue Magazine
`If you want to see who’s up and coming in the genre, then this is your book.’ Publishing News